Linda Tiano, a Member of the Firm in the Health Care and Life Sciences practice in the New York and Washington, DC, offices, was quoted in an article titled "About That Data Hub ?... Maryland Becomes First State to Send, Receive Test Data."

Following is an excerpt:

Rebecca Pearce, executive director of the Maryland Insurance Exchange, has seen the Federal Services Data Hub—something that many in the industry consider as mythical as a unicorn. The lead story in the June 6 issue of HEX quoted industry observers who speculated that the hub was behind schedule and would likely be delayed (HEX 6/6/13, p. 1).

The data hub must link state insurance exchanges to a handful of federal agencies (e.g., HHS, IRS, Homeland Security, Citizenship and Immigration Service, Social Security) to verify applicant information, such as citizenship and household income. HHS has not said what has been tested or what the results have been, which has added to the industry skepticism.

But testing is one thing, added Linda Tiano, an attorney at the law firm Epstein Becker and Green. She wondered how scalable the system would be by Oct. 1. "Once it's up and running, you've got 50 states trying to send and receive data on a daily basis," she said.